Amnesty International Calls for Release of Mehran Raouf, Iranian-British Citizen

Amnesty International has called for the release of Mehran Raouf, a labor activist and Iranian-British citizen who has been held by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Intelligence Organization since late September.

Amnesty International stated on Tuesday, March 25, that Mehran Raouf, 64, was arrested on October 25 of this year when IRGC Intelligence Organization operatives raided his home in Tehran, and has since been held in Ward 2A of Evin Prison.

The human rights organization described Mehran Raouf as a civil activist and workers’ rights defender, noting that at the time of his arrest, several other labor activists were detained in other parts of Iran, and one of these detainees was later sentenced to 16 years imprisonment.

According to Amnesty International, Mehran Raouf is being held in solitary confinement in Ward 2A under the supervision of the IRGC Intelligence Organization at Evin, which “constitutes cruel torture and violates international law,” and he is “denied access to a lawyer, contact with his family, and other legal rights of a detainee.”

Human rights organizations and previously imprisoned activists have stated that Ward 2A at Evin Prison is under the control of the IRGC Intelligence Organization led by Hossein Taeb, and Evin Prison officials do not have access to it.

Amnesty International considers Mr. Raouf to be one of dozens of dual nationals who have been arrested in recent years by Iranian government institutions, particularly the IRGC Intelligence Organization, subjected to show trials, and sentenced to lengthy prison terms, effectively being held hostage for the purposes of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

In its letter to Ebrahim Raisi, Head of Iran’s Judiciary, Amnesty International has called for immediate action to ensure that Mr. Raouf receives all legal rights to which a detainee is entitled.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has not responded to reports of the arrest of the Iranian-British dual national or to Amnesty International’s letter to the Head of the Judiciary.

Hrana, the news agency of the Human Rights Activists in Iran network, described Mehran Raouf four days after his arrest as one of the labor activists who was detained by security forces in Tehran and transferred to an “undisclosed location.”

Hrana recently reported that there is still no information about Mehran Raouf’s fate, while labor commissions in Spain had issued a statement expressing solidarity with him and labor activists at the Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Complex.

Human rights groups have stated that the fact that Mr. Raouf holds British citizenship due to several years of residence in Britain has placed him at greater risk from Iranian authorities.

During its four decades of existence, the Islamic Republic of Iran has had a long reach in detaining dual nationals or foreign citizens and accusing them of various charges, including espionage, in pursuit of its objectives against other countries.

Whenever different political, nuclear, and military crises have escalated between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Western countries, the detention of dual nationals has increased, and it is typically the IRGC Intelligence Organization that carries out these arrests.

On March 19, the French newspaper Le Figaro reported the arrest of an Iranian-French dual national and another resident of Iran with German citizenship, linking it to the case of Assadollah Assadi, an Islamic Republic of Iran diplomat in Europe who has been convicted of terrorism. Le Figaro cited its sources in assessing that the detention of these two individuals was part of a pre-planned IRGC program to kidnap more dual nationals for a potential trade in exchange for the release of Assadollah Assadi from a Belgian prison.

Mr. Assadi was last month sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for plotting a terrorist attack on French soil against the National Council of Resistance of Iran gathering through delivery of explosives to an Iranian couple living in Germany; a development that was met with strong reactions and categorical denials from the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Source: Radio Farda